Ballot fraud trial starts today

Troy City Councilman Michael LoPorto, left, and Troy City Clerk William McInerney, right, watch proceedings during a hearing in Albany last September.

Jury selection in the Rensselaer County ballot fraud against two Troy Democrats is set to begin Tuesday.

Former City Councilman Michael LoPorto and Democratic County Elections Commissioner Edward McDonough will be tried for their alleged actions to steal votes for Democratic candidates in the Working Families primary by forging absentee ballots.

McDonough will be tried on 38 counts of second-degree forgery and 36 counts of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument. LoPorto will be tried on 29 counts of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument. Each charge carries a maximum prison sentence of seven years if they are convicted.

So far, eight people have been charged in connection with an investigation conducted by Special Prosecutor Trey Smith and the State Police. Four have pleaded guilty.

Republican workers at the Rensselaer County Board of Elections got suspicious when some 50 absentee ballot applications for the 2009 Working Families Party primary poured in all at once.”It was all on the day before the primary. It’s impossible. You don’t have 50 absentees go out for a primary election,” recalled Bob Mirch, a former county legislator and longtime Republican operative who was alerted to the unusual activity.

The incident appeared to be a throwback to earlier times when votes were bought openly, ballot boxes stuffed and absentee ballots manipulated.

On primary day, Sept. 15, 2009, Mirch visited the voters who were to receive absentee ballots and mostly lived in public housing. None received ballots.

Mirch hired private investigators to quickly uncover what he suspected city Democrats had been doing.

Twenty-eight months later, those 50 ballots will be highlighted in the first trial resulting from Special Prosecutor Trey Smith’s investigation, which already has resulted in four guilty pleas.

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“The most massive voter fraud in Rensselaer County history” is how McDonough’s attorney, Brian Premo, described it during a hearing Wednesday before Pulver.

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Troy’s most famous ballot box stuffing case was in a City Council race that led to murder in 1893 in the old 13th Ward. Bat Shea would be convicted and executed for the crime that someone confessed to doing.

“This was more brazen, like an armed robbery not embezzlement,” said Jack Casey, author of “The Trial of Bat Shea” and a former county Republican chairman.

Troy’s modern ballot stealing case is a white-collar crime.

While testimony about the handling of the paperwork necessary to obtain an absentee ballot and the casting of it is expected to dominate the trial, the investigation itself will be attacked by the defense.

TIMELINE FOR BALLOT FRAUD CASE

2009

Aug. 24-Sept. 15 — Democrats allegedly carry out scheme to forge absentee ballots in Working Families Party primary for City Council seats.

Oct. 2 — Supreme Court Justice Michael C. Lynch issued an order striking down 39 absentee ballots of voters whose information had been forged on their ballots or the applications used to obtain them.

Nov. 3 — Democrats win seven of nine City Council races picking up a seat.

2010

July 15 — Special prosecutor seeks DNA evidence.

July 29 — Targets of ballot fraud investigation identified: Rensselaer County Board of Elections Commissioner Edward McDonough; city Councilmen Michael LoPorto, Gary Galuski, Kevin McGrath, and John Brown; City Council President Clement Campana; City Clerk William McInerney; and political operatives Dan Brown, who is John Brown’s brother, and Anthony DeFiglio, a former Troy Housing Authority clerk.

John Brown, Kevin McGrath, both liars out to save their own skin, probably McInerney too (but no jail for McI because friends with Mcnally who is “friends” with Trey Smith- how convenient). Karma is a bitch boys. Anyone besides me notice Campana seemed in the clear until Brown’s sudden and very LATE “cooperation” when faced with years of jail time? And is everyone fully aware the Brown brothers saw Campana as a threat to their political aspirations?? Painfully obvious to me that Brown knew he was looking at years of jail time, and Smith wanted to indict the last one on his list besides Galuski (Campana), so they played Let’s Make a Deal….Smith said you testify against Campana(lie, whatever, Smith doesn’t care), and I will reduce your jail time. Such a crock of lies and deceit and Trey Smith saying “I can do whatever I want”. Hopefully any jury worth their salt will see that nothing is clear cut and nothing can be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt. It’s all dirty politics, Smith’s long-standing vendetta against McDonough’s late father, and Smith trying to make himself out to be this righteous man…..pffft. Not!